This invention relates to a novel floatable pad having a means for collecting and holding weather precipitation such as rain, snow, sleet, hail and the like thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,606 describes a floatable pad a plurality of which comprise a floating substantially gapless insulating cover for preventing heat loss, evaporation, etc. from a liquid, slurry, semi-liquid or the like.
The floatable pad of U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,606 includes a body of predetermined floatable material, such as a low density polyethylene, or a high density cross-linked polyethylene and the like, having a horizontal cross-sectional shape, such as hexagonal, enabling a plurality of such floating pads to engage in flat surface-to-surface contact thereby providing a substantially gapless floating insulating cover. In one embodiment of U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,606, the floatable pad includes a top and bottom layers, side walls, and a plurality of thru-posts extending between the top and bottom layers and providing structural rigidity thereto, and wherein the top and bottom layers, side walls and thru-posts cooperatively provide a plurality of dead air spaces providing additional insulation between the liquid, slurry, semi-liquid or the like and the atmosphere.
The floatable pads of the prior art have the disadvantage of not being completely stable on the top of an open-top vessel when they are subjected to the elements such as wind and rain. It has been found that the pads tend to climb on each other or overlap when turbulence occurs in the fluid contained in the vessel. Once the pads overlap, the pads are difficult to separate when the pads climb on top of each other.
In addition, when the pads are used as a covering for open-top vessels such as reservoirs, pools and ponds exposed to the atmosphere, the temperature and the contents of the reservoir are at the mercy of the weather. When it rains, for example, any chemical solution contained in the reservoir, is diluted with the amount of rainfall introduced and mixed in with the chemical. Also, precipitation is generally colder than stored liquid in a reservoir and when the precipitation mixes with the liquid, a temperature dilution also occurs and there is generally a heat loss from said vessel liquid.
It is desired to provide a floatable pad which contains walls and/or a hook for use as an anti-climbing device. It is also desired to provide a floatable pad with walls for holding precipitation to provide a more stable floating pad by weighting down the pad. Further, it is desired to provide a floatable pad which can catch the bulk of precipitation to prevent dilution of the fluid contained in a vessel.